The Commentariat -- April 26, 2015

Internal links * defunct video removed.

President Obama speaks at the White House Correspondents dinner. The guy is a natural comedian; watch his timing:

... CW: Here's something I didn't know, & Michael Shear of the New York Times brings me up to speed: Keegan-Michael Key is "half of Comedy Central's irreverent 'Key and Peele' show" & last night he was "reprising his TV role as Luther, the president's Anger Translator." ...

... Cecily Strong followed President Obama, because it "feels right to have a woman follow President Obama." CW: I thought she did a swell job, but Strong is a professional comedian & IMO, her delivery wasn't as good as the President's:

Zach Carter of the Huffington Post: "Progressive Democrats have been hoping to see a showdown between Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton for years. Instead, they're getting a public feud between the senator from Massachusetts and President Barack Obama. Obama accused Warren and congressional Democrats on Friday of being 'dishonest' and spreading 'misinformation' about the Trans-Pacific Partnership... On Saturday, Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) responded with a letter essentially telling Obama to put up or shut up. If the deal is so great, Warren and Brown wrote, the administration should make the full negotiation texts public before Congress votes on a "fast track" bill that would strip the legislative branch of its authority to amend it." Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link.

Michael Schmidt & David Sanger of the New York Times: "Some of President Obama's email correspondence was swept up by Russian hackers last year in a breach of the White House's unclassified computer system that was far more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged, according to senior American officials briefed on the investigation. The hackers, who also got deeply into the State Department's unclassified system, do not appear to have penetrated closely guarded servers that control the message traffic from Mr. Obama's BlackBerry, which he or an aide carries constantly.... On Thursday, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter revealed for the first time that Russian hackers had attacked the Pentagon's unclassified systems, but said they had been identified and 'kicked off.'">

... CW: Digby sees this exactly as I do: "After all the sturm und drang over Clinton having her private and unclassified emails on a private server, this is a wee bit ironic.... It appears our vaunted security experts aren't that expert ... shocked, I am."

Disciples of Dick. Digby, in Salon: "... Republican senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham ... are losing their positions as the most hawkish members of the GOP.... Now it's time for Dick Cheney's disciples to take the reins and bring the party's warmongering spirit into the 21st century. Tom Cotton is prepared to lead the way."

Anna Palmer, et al., of Politico: House Transportation Committee chair Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) secretly fast-tracked an airlines-friendly bill through the House while he was dating Shelley Rubino, an airlines lobbyist. "The ties go beyond Shuster and Rubino: The wife of Shuster's chief of staff is a top executive for Airlines for America, which is known as A4A. And the congressman recently hired an A4A lobbyist to run the committee's aviation panel.... A4A was unsuccessful in getting the measure through the Senate, and it's now seeking Shuster's help again. The trade association is trying to wedge the legislation into a massive overhaul of the Federal Aviation Administration pending before the transportation panel. Shuster is crafting that bill, and Rubino's group has a major stake in it."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Matt Gertz & Joe Strupp of Media Matters: "Journalists have suggested that conservative author Peter Schweizer's forthcoming book attacking Hillary Clinton is more credible because he will follow it up with a similar book examining Jeb Bush. But according to his publisher, no such book is in the works: Schweizer's reporting on Bush will be published on the website of his non-profit organization.... Bloomberg Politics reported on April 23 that in contrast to the 'left-wing clamor that Schweizer is simply out to get Hillary Clinton,' 'Schweizer is working on a similar investigation of Jeb Bush's finances that he expects to publish this summer.'" ...

... CW: AND as a commenter (MAG???) pointed out here some time ago, won't we be surprised if Schweizer can't find a single irregularity in Bush's financial dealings? If, on the other hand, he does self-publish a Bush hit job, to me that means he's supporting a more confederate candidate.

God News

It's Not God's Country Anymore. For the first time in the history of our country, the government is attacking people, prosecuting people, calling for people to be rehabilitated.... We have the state establishing a new religion, a secular state religion.... We have now the secular church that is being imposed on this country and anybody that defects is subject to persecution and prosecution. -- Rick Santorum, this week on the radio

We are moving rapidly toward the criminalization of Christianity. -- Mike Huckabee, this week

Just this week, Michele Bachmann actually predicted that I would bring about the biblical end of days. Now, that's a legacy. That's big. I mean, Lincoln, Washington, they didn’t do that. -- President Obama, White House Correspondents dinner speech

William Eskridge in a New York Times op-ed: "... leaders in the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the official organizations of conservative and reform Judaism, and more than 1,900 theologians signed a brief urging the court to legalize same-sex marriage.... The faith traditions supporting marriage equality are telling the court that religions, like American families, are diverse. An increasing number of Bible-based faith communities have an inclusive attitude toward gay families and marriages.... The current Baptist view that God condemns 'homosexual behavior' and same-sex marriages comes from the same kind of broad and anachronistic scriptural readings as prior support for segregation.

Presidential Race

Michael Hirsh of Politico Magazine: "... it is highly unlikely that very much of what [Peter] Schweizer alleges will stick, if only because that classic Washington omelette made of equal parts policy and political reasons can never be unmade once it's cooked: Especially among the uber-cautious Clintons, you'll never find the smoking ingredient; no one will ever be caught saying, 'Let's make a policy decision for Bill's donors.'"

Trip Gabriel & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Nine declared or likely Republican candidates descended on a large church in Iowa on Saturday to court evangelical Christians, the voters who played the starring role in the state's two most recent caucuses. They included the winners of those two contests (Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee), newcomers whose biographies lend themselves to evangelical support (Ted Cruz and Scott Walker), and candidates who would like to win some support from the Christian right but are eyeing broad coalitions (Rand Paul and Marco Rubio). The nine-candidate lineup in the worship hall of Point of Grace Church in Waukee, a Des Moines suburb, was proof of evangelical power in Iowa, but also a warning that the script may be rewritten in 2016, with so many candidates competing for social conservatives that their votes splinter." ...

... James Hohmann of Politico: "Leading Republican presidential candidates came to Iowa Saturday to assure social conservatives that they still oppose gay marriage, despite shifting public attitudes and the recent backlash against religious liberty laws. Speaking to some 1,000 evangelicals at the Point of Grace Church in [a] suburb of Des Moines, a procession of presidential candidates expressed support for a constitutional amendment that would allow states to re-ban gay marriage if the Supreme Court recognizes a right to such unions."

Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Michigan governor Rick Snyder may be the newest GOP candidate for the White House. Snyder mingled with donors at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) in Las Vegas on Friday and told at least one attendee that he was a candidate. On Saturday morning, the former Minnesota senator Norm Coleman told reporters: 'I met with Rick Snyder yesterday. He's running. He's running.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Sour Cakes. George Rede of the Oregonian: "The lesbian couple turned away by a Gresham bakery that refused to make them a wedding cake for religious reasons should receive $135,000 in damages for their emotional suffering, a state hearings officer says. Rachel Bowman-Cryer should collect $75,000 and her wife, Laurel Bowman-Cryer, $60,000 from the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, an administrative law judge for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries said in a proposed order released Friday, April 24."

If you were wondering why so many boat people are drowning as they seek refuge in Europe, Philip Gourevitch of the New Yorker has the answer: "... when, in October of 2013, some three hundred people drowned in a wreck off Lampedusa, Italy was spurred to spend nine million euros a month -- and to deploy a good part of its Navy -- on a humanitarian search-and-rescue mission called Mare Nostrum (Our Sea). The results were immediate: after a year, a hundred and fifty thousand people had been rescued. Mare Nostrum had made crossing the Mediterranean safer -- and easier. For that reason, late last year, the European Union called for an end to the mission. Britain's Foreign Office minister, Joyce Anelay, explained that search and rescue creates 'an unintended "pull factor," encouraging more migrants.'... International maritime law and custom require that you save everyone you can...." CW: As good a reason as many to give Britain's conservative government a no-confidence vote.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A powerful earthquake shook Nepal on Saturday near its capital, Katmandu, killing more than 1,900 people, flattening sections of the city's historic center, and trapping dozens of sightseers in a 200-foot watchtower that came crashing down into a pile of bricks." ...

     ... Update: "By Monday afternoon, Nepalese authorities had sharply raised the death toll to more than 3,400, but the full extent of the devastation and death was still unclear."

New York Times: "A largely peaceful protest over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a spinal cord injury in police custody, gave way to scattered scenes of chaos [in Baltimore] on Saturday night, as demonstrators smashed a downtown storefront window, threw rocks and bottles and damaged police cruisers, while officers in riot gear broke up skirmishes and made 12 arrests near Camden Yards. Shortly before 10 p.m., Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake convened a news conference at City Hall, where she appeared with several others -- including Mr. Gray's twin sister, Fredericka; a prominent pastor, Jamal Bryant; and City Councilman Brandon Scott -- to appeal for calm. By that time the disturbances had largely settled.

The Commentariat -- April 25, 2015

Internal links removed.

Greg Miller & Julie Tate of the Washington Post: President Obama's revelation that a U.S. drone had killed two Western hostages in January "has revived questions about why the White House has been unwilling to provide similar information on dozens of other strikes over the past decade where there is abundant evidence that civilians were killed." ...

... Dan Roberts & Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "On Thursday, the White House conceded it did not specifically know whom it had targeted in the 'al-Qaida compounds' where US drones killed Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto, as well as American-born militants Adam Gadahn and Ahmed Farouq and two others. The admission suggests that 'signature strikes' -- lethal strikes launched without necessarily knowing who is in the crosshairs -- have continued despite the president's 2013 announcement that new rules would govern strikes. The order mandates that the CIA can authorize strikes only if it knows with 'near certainty that the terrorist target' is present." ...

... Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "... the President's mea culpa masks an important and timely question: How exactly did this mistake at the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorism Center happen, and who will be held accountable for it? By putting the President out front and withholding all but the broadest details about the failed operation, the Obama Administration apparently hopes to evade that question.... Obama must own up to the fact that the changes he ordered [in 2013] failed to prevent a tragic, consequential error. The best way for the President to accept responsibility would be for him to order greater transparency about what happened in January and why, and, more broadly, to accept that secret violence beyond public accountability, no matter its justification, cannot play such a central role in any democracy's 'long war' strategy." ...

... William Saleton of Slate: "But these two deaths, tragic as they are, don't change the fundamental truth: For civilians, drones are the safest form of war in modern history." ...

... W. J. Hennigan & Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times: "The White House is considering revamping its overseas hostage-rescue program after CIA drone strikes that mistakenly killed an American and an Italian held captive by terrorists in Pakistan.... A key proposal would create an interagency task force to better coordinate efforts by the FBI, the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies to find and free abduction victims...."

Dick Cavett remembers Vietnam, though he'd rather not. "Dick Cavett's Vietnam" will air on PBS Monday:

White House: "In this week's address, the President lays out why new, high-standards trade agreements are important for our economy, our businesses, our workers, and our values":

... Greg Sargent: "On a conference call with a small group of reporters, President Obama significantly intensified his criticism of Elizabeth Warren and other opponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, accusing them of being 'dishonest' about the secrecy around the TPP process, suggesting they were playing to their 'fundraising' lists, and arguing flatly that they were using 'misinformation that stirs up the base but doesn't serve them well.'.... 'I'm not adverse to continuing to engage with members of Congress or unions or anybody else in the progressive community about how we can make sure this is the strongest agreement possible,' Obama concluded. 'But what I am adverse to is a bunch of ad hominem attacks and misinformation that stirs up the base but ultimately doesn't serve them well. And I'm going to be pushing back very hard if I keep on hearing that.'"

Maybe Dana Milbank Missed the Call: Elizabeth "Warren is right: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an abomination -- not because of the deal itself, and not because free trade in general is a bad idea. The TPP is an abomination because [President] Obama had a chance to protect American workers from the harm that would inevitably come from such a pact, and he didn't take it, or at least he hasn't." ...

... Greg Nelson of the White House contrasts the TPP with NAFTA. Charts! According to the White House, the TPP does a lot to protect workers everywhere. ...

... Ellen Brown, in Common Dreams, asserts the TPP will cause "the death of the Republic: The TPP would destroy our republican form of government under the rule of law, by elevating the rights of investors -- also called the rights of 'capital' -- above the rights of the citizens. That means that TPP is blatantly unconstitutional.... Neo-liberalism and corporate contributions seem to have blinded the deal's proponents so much that they cannot see they are selling out the sovereignty of the United States to foreign and multinational corporations." CW: That doesn't seem good. ...

... Ryan Cooper of the Week says that U.S. negotiators added all those corporate goodies to the TPP in order to get Congress to pass it: "... corporate oligarchs ... have the money and lobbying muscle needed to get something through our jalopy legislature. So the administration slanted the deal heavily towards some key sectors, even allowing some corporate representatives access to the documents that were denied to members of Congress. And now the thing has built up so much momentum that Obama is invested in passing it if only so he doesn't look like he lost something big."

Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "During a farewell speech Friday at the Justice Department, where [Eric] Holder spent more than a quarter-century of his career, he highlighted the department's accomplishments over the past six years, saying he took particular pride in his efforts to empower the powerless and protect civil rights."

Cecilia Kang & Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "By the time [Comcast CEO Brian Roberts called FCC Chair Tom Wheeler on Monday], Wheeler and his staff at the FCC had already decided to block the $45 billion megadeal, one of the largest ever to come before Washington regulators.... On Wednesday, Comcast executives were summoned to a meeting in a nondescript conference room at the agency to hear the verdict: No amount of concessions would save the deal. Comcast and Time Warner would simply be too big and threatening to an array of competitors, particularly online video providers." ...

... Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The announcement Friday morning that Comcast was terminating its effort to take over Time Warner Cable, a plan that would have united the nation's top two cable operators, ultimately collapsed because of clear signals that federal regulators were preparing to block it. But the warning signs were already present from the muted reception it had received on Capitol Hill." ...

... CW: One never knows what might have been, but my guess is that under a different POTUS, Brian Roberts would be popping champagne bottles. Also, thanks, John Oliver! ...

... Sam Thielman of the Guardian: "The $45bn Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger, which would have been the biggest deal in cable history, is officially dead as of Friday morning. That outcome is due in no small part to consumers who managed to make their voices heard to regulators above the lobbying dollars of Big Cable who -- in the last year alone -- spent a combined $32m making sure they were heard in Washington." ...

... Alison Griswold of Slate thinks Comcast's famously horrible customer "service" played a part. And she doesn't even mention the company's habit of changing dissatisfied customers' names to "Asshole Brown" or "SuperBitch," or just randomly adding "Whore" as the prefix to a customer's name. 

Daniel Slotnik of the New York Times: "Bruce Jenner, the Olympic gold medalist and member of the Kardashian family, ended months of speculation on Friday night in announcing during an ABC television special that he identifies as a woman."

Will Sommer of City Desk: "A U.S. Senate staffer allegedly dabbled in drug importation, according to law enforcement. Fred W. Pagan, a staffer for U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) allegedly told law enforcement agents that he imported drugs from China in a plan to exchange them for sexual favors, according to new documents filed in U.S. District Court.... Pagan works as Cochran's office manager." ...

... Arturo Garcia of the Raw Story: "The 49-year-old suspect, who is registered to vote as a Democrat, reportedly began working for Cochran when he was 16 years old. He is currently Cochran's office manager and personal assistant." CW: So, bipartisan meth-for-sex. Excellent.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "An NBC News internal investigation into Brian Williams has examined a half-dozen instances in which he is thought to have fabricated, misrepresented or embellished his accounts, two people with knowledge of the investigation said. The investigation includes at least one episode that was previously unreported, these people said, involving statements by Mr. Williams about events from Tahrir Square in Cairo during the Arab Spring."

Presidential Race

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday said 'deep-seated ... religious beliefs' have to be changed before the world's women will get full access to abortion. 'Far too many women are still denied critical access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth. All the laws we've passed don't count for much if they're not enforced,' Clinton said. 'Rights have to exist in practice -- not just on paper,' Clinton argued. 'Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will.'... Clinton's remarks came during the sixth annual Women in The World Summit in New York." ...

... Steve M. on how wingers are taking Clinton's remarks out of context. "... that's how the right does it." ...

... Paul Krugman slams his own paper (without mentioning it by name): "If you are old enough to remember the 1990s, you remember the endless parade of alleged scandals, Whitewater above all -- all of them fomented by right-wing operatives, all eagerly hyped by mainstream news outlets, none of which actually turned out to involve wrongdoing. The usual rules didn't seem to apply; instead it was Clinton rules, under which innuendo and guilt by association were considered perfectly OK, in which the initial suggestion of lawbreaking received front-page headlines and the subsequent discovery that there was nothing there was buried in the back pages if it was reported at all.... So, is this time different? First indications are not encouraging...."

Tim Egan: "We are in the 'invisible primary,' an apt term for the age of oligarchs and dark money. It's invisible, this suck-up campaign, because it's happening behind the closed doors of a wealthy few, as a half-dozen or so Republicans audition to win the blessing of billionaires. It should be called the Plutocrat Primary.... At some point, you would think that average Americans would be appalled by a few rich guys trying to buy the next presidential election. And -- hope alert! -- you did see a great pushback against the Koches in red-state Montana this month. There, Koch-funded surrogates tried to keep poor people from getting health care, through the Medicaid expansion option of Obamacare. Koch agents were booed at one hearing. And they were shamed at another, for the stark cruelty of two people worth a combined $80 billion dollars trying to deny a basic human decency to people who earn $11,000 a year. Health care is on the way in Montana."

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Instead of a triumph, [Marco] Rubio's involvement with the immigration bill became a cautionary tale about a gifted freshman who had miscalculated his capability. Now, as he begins a run for president, Rubio is left trying to run away from the most prominent item on his political résumé." ...

... Gail Collins reviews The Life of Marco, or whatever Rubio calls his autobiography. It turns out that at an early age, Little Marco made all the family's important decisions, including which faith to follow. (CW: This seems particularly hilarious inasmuch as Marco now attends two churches whose creeds seldom overlap.) Anyway, "God figures a lot in this story, and although Rubio says he knows 'God didn't endorse candidates,"' he does make it pretty clear that he knows who would win if God had an absentee ballot." Also prominent: the Miami Dolphins.

Beyond the Beltway

Peter Hermann & Ovetta Wiggins of the Washington Post: "Top officials [in Baltimore] acknowledged Friday that Freddie Gray was not treated properly when he was arrested nearly two weeks ago but said they are still probing how he suffered the severe spinal injury that appears to have led to his death. Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said Gray was never seat-belted after being placed in a transport van, a violation of department policy. Deputy Commissioner Kevin Davis said that Gray was not offered medical attention despite several requests and that officers should have called for an ambulance when they arrested him." ...

... Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "... police-involved killings [in Baltimore] are woven into Baltimore's psyche, part of what Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake calls the 'broken relationship' between residents of this majority black city and a police department with a history of aggressive, sometimes brutal behavior." ...

... Doug Donovan & Mark Puente of the Baltimore Sun: Freddie "Gray is not the first person to come out of a Baltimore police wagon with serious injuries.... For some, such injuries have been inflicted by what is known as a 'rough ride' -- an 'unsanctioned technique' in which police vans are driven to cause 'injury or pain' to unbuckled, handcuffed detainees, former city police officer Charles J. Key testified as an expert five years ago in a lawsuit over [Dondi] Johnson's subsequent death.

News Ledes

Saturday, April 25, 2015.

New York Times: "Pledging to shut down the city, thousands of demonstrators jammed the streets of Baltimore on Saturday to protest the death of a black man who sustained a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody." ...

... Baltimore Sun: "A day of peaceful rallies into the death of Freddie Gray turned violent as dark fell over Baltimore with protesters smashing the windows on police cars, blocking traffic near the Inner Harbor and shouting, 'Killers!' at officers dressed in riot gear." ...

... The Sun also is loveblogging the demonstrations.

New York Times: "An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 shook Nepal on Saturday near its capital, Katmandu. People in the capital described scenes of panic and collapsed buildings, and the United States Geological Survey predicted severe damage to villages near the quake's epicenter, about 50 miles from Katmandu." ...

... New Lede: "A powerful earthquake shook Nepal on Saturday near its capital, Katmandu, killing more than 1,300 people, flattening sections of the city's historic center and trapping dozens of sightseers in a 200-foot watchtower that came crashing down into a pile of bricks." ...

... At 9 pm ET, the Washington Post has the death toll at 1,500. By midnight, the Post was reporting 1,800 dead. ...

... The Guardian is liveblogging developments. ...

... NEW. Washington Post: "An Indian army mountaineering team found 18 bodies on Mount Everest on Saturday, an army spokesman said, after a massive earthquake in Nepal unleashed an avalanche on the world's tallest mountain at the start of the main climbing season." ...

Katmandu's historic Dharahara Tower, before & after the quake.... NEW. Washington Post: "The devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that violently shook Nepal on Saturday left more than human casualties in its wake. The country also saw a number of its iconic UNESCO World Heritage sites and most popular tourist attractions -- some dating more than 1,700 years -- reduced to piles of rubble."

AP: "The University of Florida suspended one of its fraternities on Friday after allegations that its members hurled drunken insults and spat at a group of disabled military veterans at a Panama City Beach resort."

The Commentariat -- April 24, 2015

Internal links removed.

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "By most accounts, hundreds of dangerous militants have, indeed, been killed by drones, including some high-ranking Qaeda figures. But for six years, when the heavy cloak of secrecy has occasionally been breached, the results of some strikes have often turned out to be deeply troubling. Every independent investigation of the strikes has found far more civilian casualties than administration officials admit. Gradually, it has become clear that when operators in Nevada fire missiles into remote tribal territories on the other side of the world, they often do not know who they are killing, but are making an imperfect best guess." ...

... Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "... current and former U.S. counterterrorism officials said that Thursday’s disclosures [that U.S. drone had killed two Western hostages held by Al-Qaeda] undercut years of U.S. claims about the accuracy of the drone program and provided new ammunition for skeptics of administration policies that are supposed to require 'near certainty' that no civilians will be harmed. Despite [President] Obama’s equanimity in public, officials said that his reaction behind closed doors was considerably harsher. Obama’s advisers have for years told him that 'this would never happen, and now it did,' said a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 'It is going to be a big deal.'” ...

... Juan Cole: "... as many as a fourth of those killed by US drone assassinations are non-combatants. Death by drone is inherently lawless. There is no constitutional or legal framework within which the US government can blow people away at will. For a while in the 1970s through 1990s, assassination was outlawed. Now it is back, but has taken this freakish form where bureaucrats thousands of miles away fire missiles from large toy airplanes." ...

... Jim Newell of Salon: "You would have thought yesterday, upon hearing President Obama’s admission that a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan killed an American held hostage by al-Qaida, would rank among the most serious (and legitimate) scandals of his presidency. A disaster of this nature was bound to happen, given the White House’s loose standards for green-lighting drone strikes. Yet the reaction was fairly ho-hum. Media coverage of the event and statements from members of Congress, allies and critics of the president alike, were basically, Well isn’t that sad. Also: It’s al-Qaida’s fault." ...

... CW: Why is Benghaaazi! -- where Libyans murdered four Americans -- a scandal of such magnitude that it has engendered a small industry of political & media "investigations" & hyperbole, but the U.S.'s drone-killings of three Americans & an Italian is not?

An Odd CYA Bill. Sahil Kapur of TPM: "The Senate's top five Republican leaders have cosponsored legislation to extend until 2017 the Obamacare insurance subsidies that may be struck down by the Supreme Court this summer. The legislation, offered by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), one of the most politically vulnerable Senate incumbents in 2016, would maintain the federal HealthCare.gov tax credits at stake in King v. Burwell through the end of August 2017..... Such a move would seek to protect the GOP from political peril in the 2016 elections when Democrats would try to blame the party for stripping subsidies — and maybe insurance coverage — from millions of Americans in three dozen states.... The Johnson bill also contains sweeteners for conservatives which are non-starters for Democrats — it would repeal Obamacare's individual mandate and employer mandate, and remove federal rules requiring that insurance plans cover a minimum package of 'essential health benefits.'" ...

... Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "People who bought coverage through ObamaCare are generally more satisfied than those with other types of insurance, according to a new national survey." ... CW: That's funny, because Ron Johnson there says his bill as "a first step toward reversing the damage that Obamacare has inflicted on the American health care system." Because getting people coverage that they couldn't get before & that they like is pretty terrible.

Reuters: "Legislation to speed trade deals through the US Congress cleared a key [House] committee but low Democratic support signalled a looming battle over a Pacific trade pact central to President Barack Obama’s strategic shift toward Asia.... A companion 'fast-track' bill cleared a Senate panel on Wednesday and both are now ready for action in their respective chambers. Still, the way forward is likely to be treacherous with many of Obama’s fellow Democrats in opposition over worries that trade deals could harm jobs and the environment, leaving the White House to rely heavily on Republican support." ...

... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama rallied his staunchest allies Thursday to support his free trade push in the face of stout Democratic opposition, arguing that his critics are wrong to say the deal will harm the middle class. Appearing before 200 members of Organizing for Action, the progressive advocacy group born from his campaign apparatus, Obama said the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact his administration is pushing for is far superior to past trade deals that labor unions have blamed for job losses. Specifically, he cited the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993."

Emily Wax-Thibodeaux of the Washington Post: "One year after the largest scandal in the Department of Veterans Affairs history, a congressman says he will introduce the VA Accountability Act, which would give the new VA secretary sweeping authority to fire corrupt or incompetent employees. Rep. Jeff Miller’s (R-Fla.) bill comes in response to increasing frustration from lawmakers and veterans service organizations over the slow pace of reform in holding VA employees accountable for a litany of problems, from patient wait times to delays in benefits."

Emily Steel, et al., of the New York Times: "Facing intense regulatory scrutiny, Comcast is planning to abandon its $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, people briefed on the matter said on Thursday, ending a bid that would have united the country’s two largest cable operators and reshaped the rapidly evolving video and broadband markets.... Had the deal been approved, the combined company would have controlled as much as 57 percent of the nation’s broadband market and just under 30 percent of pay television." ...

... Jonathan Mahler of the New York Times: "At the end of the day, the government’s commitment to maintaining a free and open Internet did not square with the prospect of a single company controlling as much as 40 percent of the public’s access to it. All the more so given the accelerating shift in viewing habits, with increasing numbers of consumers choosing streaming services like Netflix over traditional TV. In this sense, it didn’t really matter if Comcast and Time Warner’s cable markets overlapped. The real issue was broadband." Oh, P.S. Thank you again, John Oliver.

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Loretta E. Lynch’s long wait to become U.S. attorney general ended Thursday, with the Senate voting to confirm the veteran New York prosecutor’s nomination five months after President Obama submitted it to Congress. Ten Republicans joined the Senate’s 44 Democrats and two independents in supporting Lynch’s confirmation, a margin slightly wider than expected ahead of the vote.... Twenty Republicans supported a procedural move earlier Thursday to close debate and proceed to Lynch’s confirmation. But only half of them voted to confirm her in the final vote: Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Rob Portman (Ohio). [Leader Mitch] McConnell joined them after expressing reservations in the weeks leading up to the vote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The New York Times story, by Jennifer Steinhauer, is here. ...

... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: Democrats react to Lynch's confirmation.

Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "David H. Petraeus ... pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified materials he provided to his former mistress and biographer. Petraeus will be spared prison time but will face a two-year probationary period and a $100,000 fine.... The deal angered FBI agents who worked on the two-year investigation and who thought Petraeus should have been treated more harshly because of the information in the notebooks and what they considered his lack of candor while running the CIA. When FBI agents confronted him in his CIA office in October 2012, Petraeus said he had never provided classified information to [his lover Paula] Broadwell, prosecutors said. Making a false statement to a federal law enforcement agent during an investigation is a felony, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The New York Times story, by Michael Schmidt & Matt Apuzzo, is here. "The sentencing was the end of a leak investigation that embarrassed Mr. Petraeus and created bitter disputes inside the Justice Department about whether he was receiving too much leniency from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.... Giving special treatment to Mr. Petraeus was a double standard, some argued, particularly when the Justice Department has led an unprecedented crackdown on leaks and prosecuted several low- and midlevel officials for disclosing secrets to reporters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: Pardon my conspiratorial musings, but I wonder if the delay in Lynch's confirmation had something to do with Holder's decision to go easy on the GOP's favorite general. Maybe they feared Lynch would throw the book at loverboy.

** Tom Donnelly, in Slate, on John Bingham, who edited the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to protect "any person."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Charles Pierce: "It appears that the 'exclusive' ratfking arrangement entered into by The New York Times and Washington Post has brought us all back to the Mena Airport again, and that it has done so by strict application of the Clinton Rules, first devised in the mid-1990's, as the nation's elite political press turned laundering oppo research into a smoothly running machine. The very first Clinton Rule, established by most of the original reporting into the Whitewater non-scandal, is that if you can blow enough smoke, you can say there's fire." Pierce raps the Washington Post story, linked here yesterday, about Bill Clinton's big speaking fees, some of which came from contributors to the Clinton Foundation WHILE HILLARY CLINTON WAS SECRETARY OF STATE. "Wealthy interests might use their wealth to 'build friendly relations' with politicians? In 2015? Has anyone told Anthony Kennedy?"

Susie Madrak in Crooks & Liars on the New York Times story, linked here yesterday, about Russians taking over a Canadian uranium company that operates in the U.S.: "This story (and the ones that will surely follow) has no solid evidence. It is nothing but innuendo. The Times has taken a book written by someone who is quite specifically paid to bring down Democrats, and has a long history of distorting and making up facts, and they're using it as a template -- adding no informed context (like the number of agencies who had to sign off on this deal) and no evidence that Hillary Clinton did anything to get this deal passed."

Presidential Race

Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "Having pledged to be the champion of everyday Americans, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton came out swinging during a speech in New York on Thursday night that expanded her personal doctrine – 'women’s rights are human rights' – to the plight of mothers, fast food workers, immigrants, retirees, students, gay and transgender people and victims of sexual abuse. In her first big speech since declaring her presidential run, Clinton took jabs at Hobby Lobby for opposing employer-covered contraception, chided the World Economic Forum for not exactly being a 'hotbed of feminist thought' and slammed Republicans for stalling the nomination of Loretta Lynch, whom the US Senate confirmed on Thursday after a lengthy delay." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The increasing scrutiny of the [Clinton] foundation has raised several points that need to be addressed by Mrs. Clinton and the former president. These relate most importantly to the flow of multimillions in donations from foreigners and others to the foundation, how Mrs. Clinton dealt with potential conflicts as secretary of state and how she intends to guard against such conflicts should she win the White House." ...

... Jonathan Chait on "the disastrous Clinton post-presidency": "... the best-case scenario is bad enough: The Clintons have been disorganized and greedy. The news today about the Clintons all fleshes out, in one way or another, their lack of interest in policing serious conflict-of-interest problems that arise in their overlapping roles.... The Obama administration wanted Hillary Clinton to use official government email. She didn’t. The Obama administration also demanded that the Clinton Foundation disclose all its donors while she served as Secretary of State. It didn’t comply with that request, either.... The Clintons’ charitable initiatives were a kind of quasi-government run by themselves, which was staffed by their own loyalists and made up the rules as it went along.... Their experience running their own privatized mini-state has been a fiasco." ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks, is pushing ahead with plans to make Hillary Rodham Clinton testify further about the attacks and her use of a private email account as secretary of state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** ... Zombies! Paul Krugman: "A deep attachment to long-refuted ideas seems to be required of all prominent Republicans.... In the world of Republican politics ... voodoo’s grip has never been stronger.... Pundits will try to pretend that we’re having a serious policy debate, but, as far as issues go, 2016 is already set up to be the election of the living dead."

Russell Berman of the Atlantic provides a handy list of billionaire donors & their favorite puppet presidential candidates. ...

... Digby, in Salon: "The only problem for the billionaires is that these candidates all have to eventually perform in a series of tryouts we call 'party primaries' where the audience, also known as voters, gets a chance to weigh in. They may not agree with the billionaires’ choice, no matter which lucky fella they anoint in their auditions. Democracy is such an inconvenience that way. These rich donors obviously believe that founder John Jay had it right when he said, 'Those who own the country ought to govern it.' Unfortunately for them, he was outvoted." ...

... The Two Faces of Marco. McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "Even as Rubio labors to publicly distance himself from the [immigration] legislation [which he initiated & is] so loathed by conservative primary voters, he and his aides have privately highlighted [his immigration reform initiative] in his resume when soliciting support from the deep-pocketed donors in the party’s more moderate business wing."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz has positioned himself as a strong opponent of same-sex marriage, urging pastors nationwide to preach in support of marriage as an institution between a man and a woman, which he said was 'ordained by God.' But on Monday night, at a reception for him at the Manhattan apartment of two prominent gay hoteliers, the Texas senator and Republican presidential hopeful struck quite a different tone. During the gathering, according to two people present, Mr. Cruz said he would not love his daughters any differently if one of them was gay. He did not mention his opposition to same-sex marriage, saying only that marriage is an issue that should be left to the states." ...

... Digby: "I get why some rich gay people would be Republicans. They are clearly rich first and gay second. But why any of them would support a nutcase like Ted Cruz is beyond me.... It's not a problem for someone like Ted Cruz to do this, however, because his voters all know that he really truly hates gay people and they are happy for him to take their money to use against them." ...

... Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "So far this year, Cruz has missed 25 percent of all Senate votes, according to data tracked by Congressional Quarterly. He has a voting participation score of 74.8 percent. By comparison, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who also has his eye on the White House, has voted 81.6 percent of the time. And Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), another presidential candidate, has managed to vote 98.9 percent of the time this year. If Paul can juggle both, why can’t Cruz?"

Walker Finds Another Way to Keep His Foot out of His Mouth. Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday that he won't discuss how to pay for federal programs for retirees unless and until he becomes a formally declared presidential candidate."

CW: As a result of my linking to stories on Li'l Randy's uncool Ray Ban eyegear, Ray Ban has latched onto me & is now e-mailing me promotional material. If libertarian Randy were really serious about freeeedom! he would not have let Ray Ban find & harass me.

Beyond the Beltway

Peter Hermann & Josh Hicks of the Washington Post: "Protests over the arrest and death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray continued for a sixth day on Thursday, with about 200 people circling the grassy plaza in front of a cordoned-off City Hall and then marching in the streets at the evening rush hour."

Elliot Hannon of Slate: "Marissa Holcomb, the five-months-pregnant manager of [a Popeyes franchise in Houston, Texas], was fired from her job this week for refusing to pay back money taken from the cash register during an armed robbery three weeks ago." Under public pressure, the franchisee later offered to un-fire her. CW: If only Popeyes were unionized.

Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "Thomas K. Norment Jr., the majority leader of the Virginia Senate, has acknowledged a relationship with a lobbyist whose firm regularly pushed for legislation that Norment voted for and, in two cases, sponsored directly. Norment ... admitted the relationship while defending himself against allegations of wrongdoing made by a former legal client who tried to blackmail him. The allegations prompted federal investigators to review the relationship, but they closed the matter without bringing criminal charges."

Way Beyond

Daniela Deane of the Washington Post: "This tidal wave of humanity landing in Italy, seeking shelter, is now a daily occurrence — and the country is struggling under the enormous weight. Italian officials are deeply concerned that the approaching summer, with its calmer weather, could bring tens of thousands more migrants to their beleaguered shores."